The Test Flights

Multilevel testing proves out safety systems for the team and
Felix Baumgartner.

Before the Red Bull Stratos team could attempt the final
flight of the mission, all operations and components were verified
through these test flights:

2nd Manned Balloon Flight

With the success of his second stratospheric test jump, Felix
Baumgartner completed the final milestone before attempting to
fulfill his dream of becoming the first person to break the speed
of sound in freefall.

- The pilot landed safely in the desert at 8:20 a.m. MDT, about
15 minutes by helicopter from the launch site

Significance of test: A jump from at least
90,000 feet / 27,432 meters has always been part of the Red Bull
Stratos test plan, but the significance became even greater after
the mission's test phase in March - which, while successful,
encountered aberrations including an aborted launch due to balloon
failure, lapses in radio transmission and thermal challenges in
temperatures approaching -90 degrees Fahrenheit / -70 degrees
Celsius. The latest successful test at an even higher altitude
confirms that these issues have been resolved for Baumgartner's
safety while also providing new data for the benefit of aerospace
research.

Pending official data review and confirmation, the leap from
97,145.7 feet / 29,610 meters takes Baumgartner past Russia's
Yevgeny Andreyev (83,523 feet / 25,458 meters) to make him only the
second man to have successfully completed a jump from such an
altitude. His planned freefall from 120,000 feet / 36,576 meters
would finally break the record of 102,800 feet / 31,333 meters set
52 years ago by the only man who has jumped from a higher altitude,
Baumgartner's mentor Joe Kittinger.

1st Manned Balloon Flight

The morning of March 15, 2012 Felix Baumgartner landed with his
parachute in the New Mexico desert nearly 30 miles away from
Roswell, wearing a spacesuit as he safely completed a journey
towards the edge of space. Just 1 hour and 40 minutes earlier Felix
lifted off from Roswell on board a space capsule attached to a
165-foot-high helium balloon that brought him to an altitude of
21,818 meters (71,581 feet).

This effort takes more than 100 expert personnel who have been
building and creating one-of-a-kind technology, and sometimes
coming together from across the world.

Data from the International Air Sports Federation (FAI) shows
how the 1st manned test measured up. At the time this was
considered the maximum vertical speed world record. Felix would
later break his own record two more times.

Speed in freefall: 587 km per hour
/ 365 mph

Altitude reached: 71,581 feet
/ 21,818
meters

Parachute opened at: 8,210.6 ft /
2,502.6 meters

Freefall time: 3 minutes and 40 seconds

The fastest ascent rate of the capsule: 1,200 feet per minute
(estimate)

The goal of this expedition towards the edge of space was to fly
over the "Armstrong Line" and to do tests under real conditions for
the first time. That is the area in aerospace where earthly
boundaries and laws disappear. It's an inhospitable region for
humans where liquids begin to vaporize and temperatures plunge to
minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Humans could not survive in this zone
without a pressurized suit to protect against the forces of
depressurization and lack of oxygen. To get there, Felix first had
to make it through another "death zone" closer to earth. During the
first 1,000 feet of his ascent there would be no time to escape the
capsule and open the parachute in the event of a malfunction.

During this first manned test the flight to the stratosphere and
exit from the capsule went exactly as planned. Felix plunged back
towards earth at a speed of nearly 365 miles per hour. He said
later the most difficult part was the extreme cold he encountered.
"I could hardly move my hands. We're going to have to do some work
on that aspect," he said. The Austrian added that he also needs to
work on getting accustomed to the extraordinary dimensions of
space. "I wanted to open the parachute after descending for a
while, but I noticed that I was still at an altitude of 50,000
feet," he said.

Even though it was only a test jump for his forthcoming leap from
an altitude of nearly 23 miles, Baumgartner still managed to make
it into the record books. He became only the third person to leap
from that altitude and survive. The only people to successfully
jump from greater heights were Russia's Eugene Andreev and American
Joseph Kittinger, both of whom accomplished their feats in the
1960s. Kittinger, a living legend now 83 years old, is serving as a
mentor for the Red Bull Stratos project and was heading
Baumgartner's test flight from Mission Control in Roswell.
Kittinger is on the team of nearly 100 top experts recruited from
the fields of science, medicine and aerospace for the
mission.

The test demonstrated that not only did the capsule system
function exactly as planned, but the giant stratospheric balloon
did as well, as balloon launch director Ed Coca confirmed. The
delicate giant, which was inflated with helium in the early morning
hours, was remotely deflated after Baumgartner's descent, exactly
as planned. The space capsule, Felix's vehicle for the jump, was
detached from the balloon with an explosive device, descended under
a parachute and later landed undamaged in the desert.

"This test serves as the perfect motivation for the team for the
next step," said Felix, flashing a wide smile after two previous
attempts to launch earlier that week had to be scrubbed.

Unmanned Balloon Tests

Joe Kittinger knows high-altitude balloon launches,
having witnessed more than 100 balloon flights, five of which were
his own. The safety behind the Red Bull Stratos Mission is ensured
through multi-stage testing. The first unmanned flight was
conducted December 2011, and the second test followed in January
2012.

The idea behind an unmanned flight test is to check
every piece of engineering without Felix in the capsule. The goals
accomplished included varifying the parachute systems, monitoring
the drop pod representing Felix in size and weight, and confirming
the electroncs and camera systems from launch to landing.

All of the important data Felix wears during the
manned tests, satellite tracking and electronics, was stored inside
the drop pod. After the capsule and pod landed under parachute in
New Mexico, the team used the data to determine Felix's potential
freefall speed at various altitudes, detect any spinning
tendencies, and confirm GPS tracking.

The following list is a brief sample of the
components checked during the unmanned tests.